486 
BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
You will no doubt infer that the latent heat stored up in the 
soil during die summer is gradually dissipated in the winter ; the 
question therefore arises, is the unusual store of last summer now 
reduced to the normal amount at this season of the year ? I think 
not, for it is well known that the frost this winter has penetrated 
but a short distance into the ground, and in consequence there is 
a considerable pant of the summer store of heat still remaining. 
This, as it escapes, will have a tendency 'to melt the snow from 
below, and almost imperceptibly reduce its quantity; while the 
rays of the sun, becoming every day more powerful, will cut away 
the snow-banks from above, even when snowstorms come, as 
they no doubt will, to cover the bare earth. 
In considering the influence of the unusual amount of latent 
heat stored up during the past summer in Maine and New Bruns- 
wick, in modifying our usual winter conditions, I have made no 
reference to the last summer’s climate beyond these boundaries ; 
that is a lrger question with which I am not prepared to deal, 
but those who may look farther afield will probably find that the 
summer changes in the surrounding regions were not dissimilar 
from those that prevailed in Maine and this province. 
To sum up the matter, I may say that the mild winter of this 
year appears to me to be largely due ito the unusually long dry 
season of the summer and autumn of 1905. 
The following notes on mild and cold winter’s in this province, 
are from the pen of Rev. W. O. Raymond, a well known writer 
on its history. 
